Britain is to pull a small number of helicopters out of southern Afghanistan
in the immediate future after a drop in violence in a controversial move
that caught military commentators by surprise given the dire need for such
aircraft barely two years ago.

The reduction in the size of the modest Sea King force in Helmand over coming
weeks will also enable aircrew to retrain on other models before the ageing
helicopter is taken out of service in 2016. It will also will free up the
limited resource in case of another Libya-style emergency.